Hello everyone. I'm about to start up a campaign and I was planning on the final mission being in Area 51. I was just wondering if there was any information about what has happened to it in 2070.

Its where they hide the dragon bones that were found on mars so AH can't find them.

I've never seen anything about it; but I can't imagine that the Pueblo Corp Council would let a perfectly functional top-secret airbase just sit there. Of course, it was Ute Nation territory for a long time, and they might have sold it or just let it rust.

Oh yea I forgot it was in one of the silly areas.

Actually, according to the map, Roswell is in Aztlan. And Roswell is fairly close to Area 51

Edit: Nevermind, Area 51 is next to Las Vegas. Which is under the Pueblo Corporate Council.

A shadowposter in SoTA64 calls it a myth (p. 161). As the real Area 51 (Groom Lake) is probably a rather mundane black projects site (assuming it's used for much of anything now that everyone and their dog monitors it) it's probably just gathering dust out in the desert -- perhaps with some late 20th century technowierdness mouldering in forgotten hangars and underground research labs.

While it is very possible that it is nothing today (IRL) (although I have my doubts about that too, since it still is heavily secured against everyone and their dog), for my campaign I am cultivating all the UFO conspiracy and saying that that is exactly what it is. Alien spaceships, extraterrestrial life, advanced cyber/bioware, etc. I'm not going to give aliens psionics, but the players have to retrieve a piece of biotech in the first run (that run is completely unrelated to Area 51 and the US government, by the way) and I'm thinking that it will be something that turns you into a technomancer.

I can't imagine the US would, either. I'd expect it to be stripped of anything valuabvle and every useful structure demolished.


The US military has it's principles, and going to town with visible security is one of them. Besides, I seem to remember they still test the occasional semi-known X-plane there.


To each their own, but keep in mind that is going to be tough mechanically. A mage who turns into a mancer burns out.

I can't imagine the US government would abandon a perfectly functional top-secret airbase

Even a single military vehicle will not be anbandoned without thoroughly disabling it, in case of a research facility the spooks and military should have carried away everything valuable which fit into a transport and then blew the whole place to kingdom come.

or done a Cuba and still has the base even though the rest is owned by a hostile govt.

I always found it strange that when regular nukes failed fusion only ones were not tried...

Because fusion bombs need a regular nuke to ignite, probably.

And no, the NAN magicked the US out good. No Guantanamo and all.

Well, the players don't actually have to use the bioware and become a technomancer. That will be an option, but the primary thought behind that is that its one of the big breakthroughs not made in 2070. Energy weapons: rare, but we have them semi-commercially available. Anti-gravity: We can replicate the effects with VTOL and hovercraft. Energy: I'm not familiar with the energy scene in 2070, so I don't know if fusion power is an advancement or not. Magic: is a no-go with the astral void of space, plus it subtracts from the ET feel. The only things I can really think we would get from ETs are more advanced Cyber/Bioware and transportation advances. Transportation such as FTL and time travel are okay, I guess, but a player can't do much with them (time travel 1. wipes out magic 2. outdates most cyberware if you go forward or gets you hunted if you go back 3. Is a clumsy plot device) (FTL isn't THAT useful when on Earth. But I suppose it could be used to take the players to another planet and have a clumsy run there, leading to more bad plot devices). Teleportation would be very useful, and I suppose it would work, but I can think of better things. Plus, I remember reading somewhere that, though most bioware can replicate cyberware, we are a long ways away from bioware commlinks, and this would provide just such a jump forward in technology. I am open to other ideas for new technology discovered in Area 51 (such as post-deltaware), however, so post away.

Edit: I suppose that a force field generator of some kind would also be appropriate.

Doesn't really take SADMs to crater runways or make sure that nothing useful remains inside a lab

What? You are aware that both technologies work on the same prinicples as jet engines respectively helocopters, are you?


Has been around since 2010, give or take, in SR.


Well, you could always go the rute of Lovecraft ... and frankly, if you want ETs, why play SR? It's not like it is short on weird things already. Why add ETs? Not to attack you or your campaign, I'm just curious.

As for Teleportation, Time Travel and Resurrection, that are three big no-gos in canon Shadowrun. Teleportation sort of works via the metaplanes though (a forgotten 4th world metamagic actually, think of it like poening stargate portals to a plane of screaming FX tunnels that end somewher eelse). Time travel is a crap plot device, I agree. And as for FTL travel? Makes no sense and is ultra cheesy.


Advanced Nanotech. SR Nanotech is very early stuff. Nanotech that has seeds that can be planted and then grow into buildings and the likes would be an idea. Or nanotech augmentations. Feel free to go to town there. Also, don't use technomancery, since that's essentially magic; use common commlink stats of 6 to 12 for your alien biolink. Maybe make some Echos attachable modules though - bioware that does what some echos do, generates more IP or the likes (houserule that more than 5 matrix IP are possible ect). Also, you could give the biolink impregnability against hacking, like a bionode.

Or make the biolink an AI that lives in the link's node and can augment the character wearing it in some symbiote way, 'lending' mancer powers to them by reading his mind and then acting on it instantly(and possibly altering his thoughts to suit it's ends, if you want to go the DeepSpace horror way, and emphathise that all perks come at a price).

I still would not like this in my campaign, but I hope this helps you out a bit.

Area 51 is pretty much just a place for testing experimental aircraft. The reason there's so much security is a holdover from the Cold War. We were very concerned about the Soviets getting hold of info on our spyplanes and stealth tech. A secret spyplane isn't very secret if the enemy knows about it. If the government is doing anything with aliens, I promise you that it's not at Area 51...it's going to be deep in Cheyenne Mountain where NO ONE can get in or fly a spy plane over it.

-- Shadowrun nanotech is actually very advanced, almost at the level of Eclipse Phase or Transhuman Space (although its potential impact is dialed WAY back in 4e). In GURPS parlance it is TL11 'dry' nanotech that does not require highly controlled conditions to function.
-- It just doesn't seem as awesome as it really is because what it allows is largely invisible to the average shadowrunner: boutique designs, exotic manufacturing materials, spray-on vidscreens, that sort of thing. There is no real reason that the products cost so much, except for game balance, or possibly, to reflect the cost of the fabrication plans (which might make sense, but this isn't touched on in Augmentation).

And to some hick, a crashed German space plane would certainly look odd if the only planes he knew were WW2 era fighters and bombers. German engineers had some crazy stuff flying in their Wunderwaffen projects.


What, really? So far as I know, no T1000 or self-constructing buildings like from that second Bridge Trilogy book of Gibson's have ever been mentioned in SR?

SR Nanotech is pretty much on par with Transmetropolitan's in 4E. Actually, a couple things, like the nano forge, are strikingly similar.

Transmet outside that WEIRD habitat, that is.

Not quite. There aren't nanotech cameras all over the place, no foglet communities all over the place, etc. There's a lot that I think has been borrowed from Transmet, but it's not nearly as pervasive as it is in Transmetropolitan.

True, but I only meant development, not spread. Could've worded that clearer though, maybe.

Yeah, the fact that time travel and teleportation are SR no-gos is what makes them appealing to me, as they would represent being miles past the cutting edge, which is one of the core themes of SR. As far as VTOLs/Hovercraft propulsion, yes I know they are COMPLETELY different from anti-gravity. I just meant they produce similar visual effects (yeah, that could have been worded better originally).

As for why I want ETs in my campaign: they have always been a fictional source of cutting edge technology, and I want to tap into some of that folklore to produce SOTA technology in my game and put the PCs in the middle of its development in a new and unique (as far as I have heard anyway) fashion for shadowrun.


And on further research, yeah, they wouldn't be doing anything with ETs at Area 51, but its still a very recognizable name and the name itself embodies many of the myths of UFOs and ETs, which is why it will still be located there.


Additionally, I like the nanotech idea as well, and may snatch that.

Do yourself a favor and get ahold of the Transmetropolitan omnibus. It contains a lot of very useful stuff for SR (among them ideas for an alien-themed cyberfashion), and weird nanotech, what a weird nanotech society might look like, and ... well, it just is awesome, best scifi comic in several years. Just read it. It is very SR, too. Took Cyberpunk out of last century, even more than GitS did.

What I'd go for. Somthing like X-coms E-11(an energy emiting element that allows for practically limitless power), nanotech(maybe liquid metal items), anti-grav tech would add alot but in subtal ways. VTOLs and Hovercraft are loud AG tech could be quite and yes maybe some form of new bio/cyber tech.

E-11 would be an awesome thing to throw in. Why its completly out of this world, it has endless posabilitys, can easy lead to a huge shif in weapon tech and untill realised is mystrious. Wheter E-11 cn be synfersized or can only be found, gifted and looted via the ETs is another thing.

What I'd go for. Somthing like X-coms E-11(an energy emiting element that allows for practically limitless power), nanotech(maybe liquid metal items), anti-grav tech would add alot but in subtal ways. VTOLs and Hovercraft are loud AG tech could be quite and yes maybe some form of new bio/cyber tech.

E-11 would be an awesome thing to throw in. Why its completly out of this world, it has endless posabilitys, can easy lead to a huge shif in weapon tech and untill realised is mystrious. Wheter E-11 cn be synthesised or can only be found, gifted and looted via the ETs is another thing.

So how do you synfersized something?

No idea.

According to reports at the time of the actual Roswell crash everything was taken to Wright Airfield... Which today is Wright-Patterson AFB. As far as the Hanger 18 stuff goes, WP has a mass of underground facilities and tunnels and I know a crap load of experimental development comes out of the workshops.

Also, what about a Cthulhutech-like Aracanotech engine that draws power from the metaplanes?

Again, magic is hard to justify with aliens because of the massive mana void of space. Although they could conceivably have something to overcome that, but that kind of takes away from the high-tech ET feel.

That wouldn't surprise me. The black flight from Vegas could make it to Wright-Patterson in the time it takes to get to A51 or Tonopah. The A1C's that get shuttled up there for TDY don't get to see what's outside, and the desert outside of Wright looks a lot like the desert outside Tonopah or Area 51...

There's no desert outside of Wright-Patterson... There's a couple of cities, but no desert.

Historically...
Area 51 was home to a great deal of our stealth technology work...which centers on carbon coatings. The site became horribly contaminated as the government decided to burn excess or unsuccessful carbon coatings in open air pits, prompting one former employee to try and sue during the Clinton administration. The projects that were being worked on at that site have been shifted to bases in western Utah and Colorado.

SR...
I could see a person using it as a toxic site in their games but I would have to agree that overall it would have been stripped of anything useful. Another interesting toxic site...the Deseret Chemical Depot just west of Salt Lake City. At one time home to, I think, 40% of the chemical weapon stockpile in the US. Nasty stuff like GB, GA, VX, H, HD and blister agents. Since I moved, not really certain how the incineration process is progressing though.

Another good one is the Pueblo Chemical Weapons Storage Facility in Pueblo, Colorado, which is just south of Colorado Springs and (I think) within the limits of the Front Range Free Zone. Given Ghostwalker's prediliction for using spirits, the presence of a toxic site so close to his base of power could be used for some decent anti-toxic runs.